June 26, 2010

Kidd shows off his power

Jason Kidd, with baseball cap turned fashionably backward,
took his swings in the home-run derby at the Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball
Game a few minutes ago and it’s probably not a surprise that the
Mavericks’ guard has a pretty decent baseball swing.

He was a good athlete, obviously, and played some baseball
back in school. But he admitted to being rusty.

“A few swings in the batting cage isn’t enough
to get you back in shape,’’ he said.

Kidd reached the finals of the home-run contest, which was
more of a singles-hitting contest, to be honest. He lashed a couple of liners
to the outfield and lofted a couple of Texas Leaguers that didn’t scare
the warning track but still were pretty good for a guy who gets paid to play
basketball, not baseball.

Interestingly, Texas Legends coach Nancy Lieberman had one
of the best swings of the group. She hit a couple of ropes.

“Baseball was my best sport in high school,’’
she said. “I could have played for our high school baseball team with the
boys.’’

Seems like focusing on basketball ended up being the right
career path.